TRC - database search our collection

The collection of the Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden (the Netherlands) is for a large part based on the Koninklijk Kabinet van Zeldzaamheden (‘the Royal Cabinet of Rarities’), which was established in 1816 in The Hague, the Netherlands. The Kabinet was in its turn built on a general royal collection of objects and a private collection of Chinese artefacts. The Kabinet closed in 1883 and its collection was moved to Leiden.

The cheongsam is regarded as the ‘standard’ dress for Chinese women from the 1930's until the 1960's. During this time it was popular in China’s main cities such as Shanghai as well as Hong Kong, Taiwan and among the Chinese diaspora throughout the world. They were often embroidered, either by hand or with a machine. There have been attempts to make the cheongsam into the national dress of China.

The Language of Threads is a novel published in 2000, and set in Hong Kong in the 1930's. It features Pei, who works initially as a saitong (washer and ironer of richly embroidered cheongsams), and then later she sets up a tailoring business. Here she starts to embroider the story of her life in silk.

Gail Tsukiyama (1957) is an award-winning Asian-American novelist, whose work focuses on the lives of Chinese women, often textile workers. Her debut novel Women of the Silk (published in 1991) is set in a silk factory in 1920's rural China, where the young girl Pei is working in a silk house. The book includes details of the mutual aid societies that were organized by Chinese women silk workers.

In 1947 Cecil Beaton, one of the most famous fashion (and war) photographers of the twentieth century, wrote a thank you letter to Mr. Lock of what later became the firm of Hand & Lock, an important British embroidery company based in London.

The Virgins Pattern: in the exemplary life, and lamented death of Mrs. Susanna Perwich .... is a mid-seventeenth century printed eulogy about the life and death of Susanna Perwich (1636-1661), a Quaker from London. She was the daughter of Robert Perwich of Aldermanbury, London.

In 2015/6 various embroidery groups across the United Kingdom came together to create a commemorative embroidery dedicated to the so-called Massacre of Hardhome. It was commissioned by HBO Home Entertainment TV Network in order to celebrate the launch of the Game of Thrones Series 5 (Blue Ray and dvd box set).

Les brodeuses ('The embroiderers') is the name generally given to any of a series of drawings and lithographs by the French painter and lithographer, Ignace Henri Jean Théodore Fantin-Latour (1835-1904). They are now spread all over the world.

Embroidery has for centuries played an important role in Russian daily life. The mainly linen garments were often decorated with embroidered hems, and the towels were often skillfully embellished. Embroideries were also often included in dowries, reflecting the social position of the bride's family, but also the skills of the bride.

Henri Brocard (Genrich Brokar; 1836-1900) was a Russian-French businessman and philanthropist, who in the late nineteenth century set up the Moscow firm of perfume and soap production, Brokar and Co. In order to attract customers, especially for his soaps, he included a free chart of a cross-stitch design with his products.